A Method for siting and prioritizing the removal of derelict vessels in Florida Coastal Waters: test applications in the Florida Keys

Increased boating activities and new waterfront developments have contributed an estimated 3,000 dismantled, abandoned, junked, wrecked, derelict vessels to Florida coastal waters. This report outlines a method of siting and prioritizing derelict vessel removal using the Florida Keys as a test area. The data base was information on 240 vessels, obtained from Florida Marine Patrol files. Vessel location was plotted on 1:250,000 regional and 1:5,000 and 1:12,000 site maps. Type of vessel, length, hull material, engine, fuel tanks, overall condition, afloat and submerged characteristics, and accessibility, were used to derive parametric site indices of removal priority and removal difficulty. Results indicate 59 top priority cases which should be the focus of immediate clean up efforts in the Florida Keys. Half of these cases are rated low to moderate in removal difficulty; the remainder are difficult to remove. Removal difficulty is a surrogate for removal cost: low difficulty -low cost, high difficulty - high cost. The rating scheme offers coastal planners options of focusing removal operations either on (1) specific areas with clusters of high priority derelict vessels or on (2) selected targeted derelicts at various, specific locations. (PDF has 59 pages.

Rendimientos del cultivo de colza en Mendoza con distintos regímenes de riego en períodos no críticos

Actualmente existe interés en el cultivo de colza (Brassica napus) para la obtención de biodiesel porque sus semillas contienen hasta un 50% de su peso en materia grasa. Desde hace un tiempo, debido a la producción de biocombustibles, el cultivo cobró impulso, como bioenergético, dado que cumple con todos los requisitos de calidad, de acuerdo al estándar europeo (Körbitz, 1999). Si bien en Argentina la producción de aceites vegetales se hace exclusivamente basándose en cultivos estivales, la colza se presenta como una interesante alternativa de producción invernal para una amplia zona. En Argentina, a partir del año 2010 debe usarse en el gasoil un mínimo de 5% de biodiesel. Por esa razón consideramos importante realizar esta experiencia en colza. Al ser un cultivo de ciclo inverno-primaveral, el uso del recurso hídrico no compite con los principales cultivos de la región que en su gran mayoría son de ciclo primavero estival. Mendoza es de clima árido, donde los cultivos solo prosperan bajo riego y como es sabido, el agua es un recurso escaso. Esto nos motivó a cuantificar sus necesidades hídricas totales y también a determinar el manejo óptimo del riego en cuanto a láminas y momentos de aplicación, a fin de maximizar la ecuación producción por m 3 de agua aplicada. Encontramos importante determinar y cuantificar esos “ahorros de agua" que se puedan realizar durante la fase o período no crítico al estrés hídrico, sin que esto produzca disminuciones en el rendimiento. Se propuso analizar durante dos años la respuesta del cultivo al riego diferenciado, aplicándo 4 diferentes tratamientos durante el período no sensible, reponiéndose en todos los casos durante el período crítico el 100% de la demanda evapotranspirativa. Los períodos no sensibles son: Fase nº 1: Plántula, Roseta y Elongación y Fase nº 3 de endurecimiento de grano a cosecha. Esta experiencia se llevó a cabo en los dos predios que posee la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. (Bermejo y Luján ambos sitios ubicados dentro del oasis norte. Mendoza, Argentina) La variedad utilizada fue: SW 2836, variedad de tipo primaveral, ciclo corto. Los tratamientos fueron los siguientes: T0 en donde se aplicó el 100 % de las necesidades hídricas del cultivo y luego tres tratamientos denominados T1, T2 y T3 en los que se aplicó respectivamente el 125, 75 y 50 % de las mismas. También se cuantificaron los rendimientos en semilla y aceite que se obtuvieron con distintos manejos del riego en cuanto a láminas y momentos de aplicación, para determinar el manejo que maximice la ecuación Kg de semilla y/o aceite por m 3 de agua aplicada. Es importante destacar que en esta experiencia contamos con estudiantes avanzados de la carrera de agronomía, como así también con personal de campo de las fincas de la facultad.Fil: Antonini, C. A. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias AgrariasFil: Barros, R. A. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agraria

Wave simulation for the design of an innovative quay wall: the case of Vlorë Harbour

Sea states and environmental conditions are basic data for the design of marine structures. Hindcasted wave data have been applied here with the aim of identifying the proper design conditions for an innovative quay wall concept. In this paper, the results of a computational fluid dynamics model are used to optimise the new absorbing quay wall of Vlorë Harbour (Republic of Albania) and define the design loads under extreme wave conditions. The design wave states at the harbour entrance have been estimated analysing 31 years of hindcasted wave data simulated through the application of WaveWatch III. Due to the particular geography and topography of the Bay of Vlorë, wave conditions generated from the north-west are transferred to the harbour entrance with the application of a 2-D spectral wave module, whereas southern wave states, which are also the most critical for the port structures, are defined by means of a wave generation model, according to the available wind measurements. Finally, the identified extreme events have been used, through the NewWave approach, as boundary conditions for the numerical analysis of the interaction between the quay wall and the extreme events. The results show that the proposed method, based on numerical modelling at different scales from macro to meso and to micro, allows for the identification of the best site-specific solutions, also for a location devoid of any wave measurement. In this light, the objectives of the paper are two-fold. First, they show the application of sea condition estimations through the use of wave hindcasted data in order to properly define the design wave conditions for a new harbour structure. Second, they present a new approach for investigating an innovative absorbing quay wall based on CFD modelling and the NewWave theory

Total nuclear disarmament: ethical and moral issues

Moving focus from the geostrategic and political realms to ethical and moral ones can lead to a better understanding of the paradox of “guaranteeing peace” by means of implementing an . infrastructure for the extinction of mankind (i.e. the nuclear weapons industry). A possible way forward is derived from this major paradigm shift. The analysis is contextualized within the broader scope of questioning the implicit legitimization of unrestrained tampering with nature, from matter to life

CFD investigations of OXYFLUX device, an innovative wave pump technology for artificial downwelling of surface water

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: CFD investigations of OXYFLUX device, an innovative wave pump technology for artificial downwelling of surface water journaltitle: Applied Ocean Research articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2016.10.002 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The Redevelopment of The Heritage of Social Housing in Italy: Survey and Assessment Instruments. The Case Study of Pilastro Neighborhood in Bologna

Abstract The increasing importance of social housing in order to deal with the emergency caused by the pressing demand, places in the foreground the need to redevelop the existing public housing heritage. The paper proposes the deepening of one case study, the Pilastro neighborhood, a significant example of social housing high density settlement, situated in the outskirts of Bologna in order to brought out the technical, functional and social factors, on which the level of quality of the settlement and the phenomena of social uneasiness depend. It also highlighted some factors that may pose a resistance to the measures of improvement

Il PON Reti e Mobilità e gli obiettivi di Sostenibilità: il ruolo del Piano di Monitoraggio Ambientale

The National Operative Program (PON) “Reti e mobilità” has been approved by European Commission on the 7th of December 2007. The strategic approach of the PON, exclusively devoted to the socalled “convergence regions” of Italy (Campania, Calabria, Sicilia, Puglia), aims to: 1. improve the modal balance by an economic, social and environmental perspective; 2. develop the inter-modality in order to move towards the integration of convergence area into the network of the European transport system; 3. improve the mobility and the accessibility, also to reduce the traffic congestion; 4. increase the efficiency related to security standards, to management techniques and to the quality of transportation services in the sector of freight; 5. guarantee the reduction of environmental impacts through a global improvement of the efficiency of the transport systems. In such a way it is clear that the PON “Reti e mobilità” takes greatly into account the Sustainability principles recognized at European scale as attested by the budget, namely over the 70% of the entire fund, associated with low-impacts infrastructures (railways and harbors). The PON has been submitted to the SEA procedure, following what the 2001/42/CE Directive establishes. The Environmental Report of PON devotes great attention to the monitoring activity as shown by the reported recommendation about the need for adequate measures for the environmental monitoring, also in order to apply corrective measures during the implementation of the program. By this point of view, a first and important step has been the elaboration of the “Environmental Monitoring Plan” (EMP) that represents the main methodological document for the following implementation of the monitoring activity. This paper, after a brief presentation of the program and of the objectives of Sustainability that the Programs aims to pursue through the realization of specific projects, is devoted to introduce the Environmental Monitoring Plan of the PON that has been approved by the Ministry of the Infrastructures and Transport -in charge as Management Authority of the PON- in February 2011. In detail, the PMA represents the tool through which, the Management Authority, that has specific responsibilities and functions in terms of monitoring and environmental assessment of the program, controls the significant impacts on the environment caused by the implementation of the PON and verify the level of achievement of the established objectives of environmental sustainability. The structure of EMP is based on three main aspects: 1) the adoption of the results of other interesting experiences carried out by experts institutions on the topic; 2) an approach favoring the creation of an “integrated” monitoring system with the others Operative Programs activated at regional scale; 3) the implementation of a cooperation and shared process with all the directly-involved actors

TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF DOMAIN-WALL COERCIVE FIELD IN MAGNETIC GARNET-FILMS

The coercive properties of magnetically uniaxial liquid-phase epitaxy garnet films were investigated between 10 K and the Neel temperature (T(N) less-than-or-equal-to 500 K). Two independent methods, the results of which are nearly identical (magnetical response of oscillating domain walls and the method of coercive loops measured in a vibrating sample magnetometer), were used. Besides the usual domain-wall coercive field, H(dw), the critical coercive pressure, p(dw), was also introduced as it describes in a direct way the interactions of the domain walls with the wall-pinning traps. Both H(dw) and p(dw) were found to increase exponentially with decreasing temperature. Three different types of wall-pinning traps were identified in the sample and their strength, their rate of change with temperature, and their temperature range of activity were determined

Molecular biogeography of Mediterranean and southern African disjunctions as exemplified by pollen beetles of the Meligethes planiusculus species-group and related taxa (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae; Meligethinae)

We investigated the apparent disjunction expressed in two related assemblages of species of the genus Meligethes, i.e. M. fruticola and its allies in the Cape region of South Africa and the M. planiusculus group in the Mediterranean region. We also inferred possible dynamics in the radiation of the Meligethes planiusculus complex within Macaronesia utilizing morphological, molecular and bionomical data, exploring potential historical and palaeoecological scenarios regulated by a molecular clock dating system. We reconstructed phylogenetic relationships of the M. planiusculus complex and of related Mediterranean (M. tristis), tropical (M. scotti) and southern African (M. chevrolati, M. conformis, and M. fruticola) species, using COI mitochondrial gene sequences. Phylogenetic reconstructions support an unambiguous distinction of two major clades grouping European-Mediterranean M. canariensis, M. isoplexidis andM. planiusculus specimens in one clade and the South-African specimens related to M. fruticola in another. Molecular markers suggested that the European-Mediterranean taxon M. tristis is unambiguously more distantly related to the partly sympatric M. canariensis, M. isoplexidis and M. planiusculus, than to the geographically isolated Southern African taxon, M. fruticola. However, morphological data revealed that M. tristis is more closely related to M. planiusculus and its allies while occupying a position internal to the M. planiusculus species group, but external to the M. planiusculus complex. Results of divergence estimation analyses suggest a splitting between ancestors of the European-Mediterranean species of the M. planiusculus complex and that of the African species M. fruticola at ~21-23 MYA. Molecular results also demonstrated that the remaining Afrotropical species are more related to the M. planiusculus and M. fruticola complexes than to M. tristis. This evidence clearly indicates that the Holarctic M. planiusculus group represents a paraphyletic assemblage with heterochronic Afrotropical origin. The estimated times of divergence supports evidence from other researchers of an ‘Arid Corridor’, or of a ‘Central or Eastern High Africa Corridor’, which connected several times in the last twenty MY the European-Mediterranean and eastern/southern African areas, and facilitated species migration northwards and southwards. The dynamics of the Meligethes planiusculus complex radiation in Macaronesia apparently followed a contradictory biogeographical scenario than the sequence of events recently hypothesized for their host-plants (Echium, Boraginaceae)

A Cloud Based Service for Management and Planning of Autonomous UAV Missions in Smart City Scenarios

Cloud Robotics is an emerging paradigm in which robots, seen as abstract agents, have the possibility to connect to a common network and share on a complex infrastructure the information and knowledge they gather about the physical world; or conversely consume the data collected by other agents or made available on accessible database and repositories. In this paper we propose an implementation of an emergency-management service exploiting the possibilities offered by cloud robotics in a smart city scenario. A high-level cloud-platform manages a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (quadrotor UAVs) with the goal of providing aerial support to citizens that require it via a dedicated mobile app. The UAV reaches the citizen while forwarding a realtime video streaming to a privileged user (police officer),connected to the same cloud platform, that is allowed to teleoperate it by remote